I'm toying with some ideas and wondering if any of you can offer some advice.
We just completed the encounter with Black Magga, which was quite a bit of fun, except that everyone in the party was hit with her energy drain. And they all failed their saves to prevent the negative levels being permanent. Now, they're making plans to head back to Magnimar for some Greater Restoration. I'm uncertain whether they'll plan to come back, but I can certainly include to NPC persuasion to get them to do so. My problem is: what should happen in the meantime?
I'm thinking the dam will have broke and the entire town of Turtleback Ferry will be flooded out. Most of the people will have died (which is funny, cause after finding the Lucrecia's list of those tatooed, my party assumed they were willing participants, and decided all 200ish people needed to "meet justice.")
Not entirely sure what to do with Fort Rannick, or what will motivate the PCs to investigate the Clanhold. They were about to investigate the commander's lover, but I'm not sure that will be the case after the flood.
Ideas?
While I usually prefer to let PCs live with the consequences of their actions, this particular piece of the AP is quite brutal: Face Black Magga, lose an almost-guaranteed 8-10 permanent levels, then head up and have some nasty fights at Skull's Crossing with missing levels.
Many (if not most) PC groups just aren't that noble, and will leave.
My approach to this situation would be:
(1) Set a time limit of 1 week for the dam to collapse.
(2) Have around 2/3 of the residents of Turtleback Ferry flee during that time; leave the other 1/3 as 'too stubborn to go', and make sure they're generously populated with those too greedy to give up their material goods even to save their own lives.
(3) If the PCs don't return to Turtleback Ferry at all, then in 2 weeks have the refugees start arriving in Magnimar, talking about the adventuring group that fought off Black Magga but then abandoned Turtleback Ferry to its fate. Prices go up. Inns close. The characters get a really bad reputation, and can't get help from anyone.
(4) Have the attack on Sandpoint happen without the PCs, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of residents, including some the PCs care about. Mention that those who pursued the giants (Hemlock included) were slaughtered by Kreeg ogres.
That ought to motivate them to slaughter the Kreegs, sack Jorgenfist, and get the AP back on track (minus hundreds of civilian casualties).
I like to cut them a bit of slack, simply because Black Magga is an uncalled-for fight, so I'd give them at least a few days to get Restored. But if they dawdle for any reason, it should be Very Bad.
At their level, they should be able to teleport back to Magnimar, or Mayor Shreed should mention that Ilsurian can provide Restorations with a much shorter walk. (If you're willing to give them that 'out'.) So if they're back within 3-4 days, they're golden. But if they just wander off for a few weeks, there should be massive consequences.
I might give them the Ilsurian out. They don't have access to any form of teleportation at present, and without a primary caster, may never.
To be honest, the party's been kinda lazy around investigation with this portion. They haven't met the Mayor, and didn't care to, and they've interacted with very few people in TF at all.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who was thinking "things should go very bad" though. I was worried I might come across as being punative.
Black Magga is pretty brutal. I'd allow them a bit of time, for pretty much the reasons outlined by Nobodyshome, but there's definitely a limit of how much they're allowed to act like poor excuses for heroes before they have to suffer for it.
Eventually I find that experienced parties learn to carry scrolls of restoration, to hit negative levels while they're still temporary and easy to get rid of. Usually this happens after surviving big batches of undead while having to deal with the issue of negative levels.
My guys for RotRL surprised me by buying several such scrolls as they were leaving Magnimar. They've never really dealt with energy draining monsters in abundance before, but the players are proving to have great foresight and planning ability.
Well, THEY'RE going to be fine -- as long as they don't mind being responsible (through inaction) for the deaths of around 600 people.
But hey, they're NPCs! A dime a dozen! I think I've got $5 around here somewhere...
In all seriousness, if they're not taking the flooding, constant rain, and appearance of monsters from the Storval Deep seriously, and aren't interested in talking to anyone about what might be causing it, then in my opinion it's time for some old-school "You lose because you didn't bother talking to the NPCs" smack-down.
But if they're at least dedicated enough to say, "We really need to go investigate that dam, but we're so hurt we can't until we get Restored," I'd be lenient enough to let them get to Ilsurian and get a level back.
And that's where the fun really comes in, and this is only because:
(a) I'm evil, and
(b) I know my players through-and-through.
Give them REGULAR Restorations (1 level each), tell them to come back in a week, and see whether they lie around Ilsurian for a week and let the dam burst, or go in fighting down a level each. Personally, I think that those are the kinds of decisions that make roleplaying memorable, but you know your group better than I. They might hate you for it.
As a bit of an update to those of you who offered suggestions:
Two members of the party elected to do some re-rolls (the two power-gamers get bored with their characters if played for more than a few levels).
Instead one of the PCs will enlist aid to continue the adventure.
It's kind of interesting how the whole campaign has really become her story. She's the only PC to have survived thus far through almost TPKs from the very beginning, she's was the target of Aldern's obsession, and during Burnt Offerings she rescued one of the bird-cruncher goblin refugees, reformed him, and he has been her constant companion every since.
Now to write a side quest that brings her together with her new comanions....
I appreciate the suggestions, and I think I'm still going to use them. I'll throw in some foreshadowing to make the side quest a "race against time" to get back to TF and uncover the mystery of the endless rains.